Matthew 24:3-8: “See that no one leads you astray.”

“All these are but the beginning of the birth pains,” Jesus in Matthew 24:8

“This is fact! May 21, 2011 is the day of the Rapture, it is the day that Judgment Day begins...” (Harold Camping, Topics from the Open Forum)

“One of the greatest temptations in times of difficulty is to follow blindly any self-proclaimed savior who promises help.”  (D.A. Carson, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 497)

Verse 3 begins what is known as the “Olivet Discourse,” where Jesus speaks of things to come.  The Olivet Discourse runs through the end of chapter 25.   In the other two synoptic gospels, the Olivet Discourse is found in Mark 13 and Luke 21.  

It is no mere coincidence, I believe, that the setting for Jesus to talk about His return is on the very mountain, the Mount of Olives, where He will touch down when He returns.    The prophet Zechariah says, of the return of the Lord, “On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west…” (Zechariah 14:4)

As He sat, the way teachers did in that day (see Matthew 5:1), the disciples came to Him privately (v.3).  Mark 13:3 adds it was the inner core of disciples who came to Him:  Peter, James, John and Andrew.   They ask Him a flurry of questions: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (v.3)

Jesus begins with His over-arching theme: “See that no one leads you astray.” (v. 4) “I’m telling you now,” Jesus seems to say, “so that when all of this happens, you will not be surprised.”  “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.” (v. 5) An act done “in the name of Christ,” does not imply that it is a godly act.   Those condemned at judgment will respond, “Did we not do many mighty works in Your name?”  (see Matthew 7:22). 

False Christs have been part of the landscape since the beginning.  Warnings of wolves in sheep’s clothing are part of New Testament teaching:  from Jesus (see Matthew 7:15), to Paul (Acts 20:28-30), and John (1 John 4:1-3).   The early post-New Testament church had to confront men such as Marcion and Arius who taught heresies that led many astray.   

The church of the middle Ages became evil and corrupt, condemning and killing many saints, including Tyndale, Wycliffe, and Huss.   Such cults as Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses have been active for over 100 years.  My generation knows the names of false Christs such as Koresh, Applewhite, Whisenant and Camping.   My wife and I have read reports from missionaries in China who speak of false Christs infiltrating the church and leading believers astray into various cults.

Jesus continued: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not alarmed for this must take place but the end is not yet.” (v.6)  In one sense these occurrences seem more frequent.   Technology has brought images directly to our computers confirming that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” as well as “famines and earthquakes in various places.” (v. 7)   However, these tragedies have happened with regularity since Jesus spoke these words.   “All of these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (v.8) and signs that we live in a fallen world.  

 When someone in Jesus’ name makes a spectacular claim, we need to be like the Berean Christians, “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).  When we hear of great tragedy, we must remember Jesus warned us not be alarmed, the end is not yet (v. 6).   We should learn from Psalm 1 and meditate on and delight in God’s law day and night.   Then, even in times of deception and world-wide upheaval, we will bear fruit.

Matthew 24:1-2 “Not One Stone”

“There will not be left … one stone upon another.”  Jesus, speaking about the temple, Matthew 24:2

It is impossible to overstate the role of the temple in the Jewish mind. The temple was the meeting place between God and man.  It represented the atonement, the sacrifice and the priesthood…To say the temple would crash was to say the nation would crash.  (Max Lucado, And the Angels Were Silent, p. 117)

You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.  (Mattie Ross, the 2010 movie, True Grit)

The setting for Matthew’s gospel has been the temple since Jesus entered it in 21:23.  Now He has left it.  “Elvis has left the building” and Jesus has left the temple (v. 1).   But unlike Elvis, Jesus will not return to the temple for an encore.   This is reminiscent of when the Spirit of God deserted the previous temple in 586 BC before it was destroyed (Ezekiel 10:18-19; Psalm 79:1).  Seventy years later Ezra rebuilt the temple (Ezra 6:1-5) and it was refurbished by Herod in 10 BC.

On the road going away (v.1) from the temple, probably to Bethany where He lodged (Matthew 21:17; 26:6), His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the temple (v. 1).  One of the disciples said to Him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and wonderful buildings!” (Mark 13:1).  Jesus replied to them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (v.2)

Jesus gives a dramatic prophecy here.  The Jewish historian Josephus in his work Wars of the Jews records its fulfillment in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus laid siege to Jerusalem and burned and destroyed the temple.   

Many Bible scholars believe that Matthew 24:2 is good evidence for an early date for Matthew’s gospel.  Matthew wrote with a pattern of prophecy and fulfillment (1:22-23; 2:4-6; 2:15; 2:17; 3:3; 4:14-16; 12:17-21; 13:14-15; 14:35; 15:7-9; 21:4-5; 21:16; 21:42; 22:43-44).  But here He merely gives the prophecy, the destruction of the temple, without its fulfillment.  This makes perfect sense if Matthew wrote his gospel prior to AD 70. If the date was later, then why would he not record the fulfillment of such a dramatic prophecy?  A pre-70 AD date for Matthew’s gospel, as opposed to a date decade or even centuries later,  adds credibility to the eyewitness claims of Matthew and adds validity to its historicity.

There are at least 3 reasons why the Lord destroyed the temple.   First, it was judgment on the nation of Israel for its idolatry and hard-heartedness, just as the Lord had done with the previous temple 620 years earlier.   Second, the sacrificial system that the temple housed soon will no longer be needed.  With the temple sacrifices “there is a reminder of sins every year.   For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4.  See Hebrews 10:11; 9:6-7).   But now “the Lamb of God” has come “who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29). 

      

Another reason that the temple is not needed is that it is no longer the primary place where man communes with the Spirit of God (John 4:21,23).  The death of Jesus ushered in the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15-18).  In the New Covenant, unlike before, His Spirit dwells within all believers, a truth prophesied in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 11:12, 18:31, 36:26; Jeremiah 31:33).  Our body is now the place where God and man commune (1 Corinthians 6:19).   As wonderful as this is, the New Covenant truth of the indwelling of God, is merely a shadow of yet an even greater reality to come!   

In the Age to Come, in the New Jerusalem, the temple will not exist there either for “the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3) because “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb,” (Revelation 21:22).  We will no longer see in a mirror dimly but worship and commune with the Lord face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12)!    Truly this will be the blessed climax of existence for all who love His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8)!   Hallelujah! 

Matthew 23:37-39: “God: Abounding in Love, Punishing the Guilty”

Rembrandt's painting of the prophet Jeremiah lamenting the first destruction of Jerusalem approximately 586 BC.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!  …How often would I have gathered your children together…and you would not!” Jesus in Matthew 23:37

You don't see the spectacular love of God until you see the spectacular holiness of God..If you soften your view of God's holiness, then what the cross achieved also is weakened."  (Dr. D.A. Carson, God: Abounding in Love, Punishing the Guilty; Lecture given May 12, 2011)  

But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,  and with His wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6 ESV)

“Jerusalem, the city which missed its moment of destiny.”  (P.W.L.  Walker, New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 591)

In one of the most poignant moments in all of Scripture, Jesus finishes His condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees with a heartfelt lament over the city of Jerusalem and the people of Israel.  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” (v.37) Jesus cries, using the double name.   In times of great emphasis Jesus doubles the name of the person to whom He is speaking:  Martha (Luke 10:41), Simon (Luke 22:31) and Saul (Acts 9:4).   David also used this same pattern when crying over his son Absalom (2 Samuel 19:4).

Our Lord never glosses over or merely dismisses sin.  Rather, He faces it head on.    Here He speaks the truth in love regarding Jerusalem: “who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” (v.37)  This statement looks backwards into the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Hebrews 11:37) including such prophets as John the Baptist (Matthew 14:10).  It also, as mentioned in the previous devotion, points forward to the apostles and the early church in the Book of Acts (Acts 5:40; 7:60; 9:2; 12:2; 14:19; 2 Corinthians 11:23-27).   And of course, it is merely days until they kill the Sent One from God (Zechariah 2:9).

Yet the Lord promises His blessing and reward on those who suffer for His sake, from Bible times till the culmination of the ages (Matthew 5:10-12).   For if they kill the King of Glory, then how much more shall we expect suffering as well (John 15:18)?  

Yet our Lord shows His tender heart and His desire for Israel: “How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (v. 27).  And our Lord, always the gentleman, does not force His children into compliance.  He took a step back and observed, “and you would not” (v. 27).   

As the Lord, abounding in love, gives plenty of opportunity for repentance, He will also punish the disobedient when those calls are repeatedly ignored.   Jesus promises Jerusalem, “See, your house is left to you desolate” (v. 38).  The desolation of Jerusalem was fulfilled in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus destroys the city.   Over 1 million died, according to Jewish historian Josephus.  

This is not the first time that Israel ignored the call of the Lord to repent.  Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord said to Israel, “I spoke to you…but you did not hear and I called you but you did not answer,” (Jeremiah 7:13).  And consequently this is not the first time the Lord destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.  In 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar destroyed both (2 Chronicles 36:17-19). 

Jesus ends Matthew 23 with this stern promise: “for I tell you, you will not see Me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’” (v.39).  Granted, this cry was given when Jesus entered Jerusalem just days before (Matthew 21:9) but it was not from hearts that understood and worshiped (Matthew 21:10).   This promise will not be fulfilled until the Second Coming of our Lord when “the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” will have the Spirit of grace poured out upon them (Zechariah 12:10).  And with that statement, our Lord left the temple (Matthew 24:1) to never enter it again

If these judgments for not repenting come upon Israel, of whom the Lord saw as a son, (Hosea 11:1; Exodus 4:22), how much more will they apply to us, the wild olive branches who have been grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:19-21)?   Yes, God is a God of love.   But He is also a God of wrath on the unrepentant.  It is the same God in both the Old and the New Testament who is abounding in love and punishing the guilty.   And praise God for our Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the wrath of God destined for us (Romans 5:9).  Let us humbly learn from Israel and give ourselves fully to the grace of God. 

Matthew 23:34-36: His Blood: Our Guilt and Our Salvation

“…I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify…” Jesus in Matthew 23:34

 “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” (Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956)

Jesus continues in His revealing of the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees.   Jesus receives no points for political correctness. Rather, He peers deeply into human hearts and proclaims the truth about man.  Jesus can do this; He is the Judge who will preside over the final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).   We as humans must take a backseat when it comes to judging the hearts of others.  Discern, yes; judge, no.

Jesus says, “Therefore I send you  prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town” (v. 34).    This is fulfilled with John the Baptist (Matthew 14:10) and in the Book of Acts:  Peter and the Apostles (5:40), Stephen (7:60), the church (9:2), James (12:2), Paul (14:19, 2 Corinthians 11:23-27), etc.  And it will be fulfilled when they deliver up the King of Glory to be crucified. 

Also, notice the Christology of Jesus’ words “I send you” (v. 34).  If our Lord was a mere man, He could not have uttered those words.   Yet our Lord reveals He is beyond human, beyond space and time, with those simple words:  I send you.

Even though the scribes and Pharisees thought they were so righteous that they would never shed blood (23:30), they were guilty of the blood of a whole generation of prophets, including the Prophet, Priest and King.   Therefore on them will come all the righteous blood shed on earth (v. 35).   From A to Z, from Abel to Zechariah (v. 35), from the first murder (Genesis 4:8-11) to the last murder recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), they are guilty.  

The phrase son of Barachiah (v. 35) is a difficulty since the Zechariah who was recorded as murdered in the court of the house of the Lord (2 Chronicles 24:21) is listed as the son of Jehoiada, not Barachiah.   A different Zechariah is recorded as the son of Barachiah (Zechariah 1:1).   Bible scholars have many possible solutions to this difficulty.   One of them is that Zechariah was a popular name in Biblical times.  Unger lists twenty-nine different Old Testament characters that had the name” Zechariah” (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, pp. 1380-1381).  Also, one of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts of Matthew (i.e., Sinaiticus) omits son of Barachiah, giving possible evidence of a later scribal error. 

And just days later when the people of Jerusalem cried, “His blood be upon us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25), they prophesied against themselves.  For a generation later the Roman siege of Jerusalem killed over 1 million people, according to the Jewish historian Josephus.   Those things did come upon this generation (v. 36), just as Jesus said.

Rembrandt’s (1606-1669) masterpiece, The Raising of the Cross, hangs in the museum Alte Pinakothek in Münich.   This painting depicts the crucifixion of Christ.  Interestingly out of place, Rembrandt painted into this picture a man in a blue painter’s hat raising the cross.   Francis Schaeffer in How Should We Then Live?  (p. 98) explains:  “That man is Rembrandt himself – a self-portrait.  He thus stated for all the world to see that his sins had sent Christ to the cross.” 

This passage from Matthew 23 has been the basis for much heretical hostility toward the Jewish people over the centuries.   But all of us are guilty of the blood of Jesus.   If we blame others for the crucifixion of Jesus without implicating ourselves, then we prove we are in darkness and outside of His salvation.   Like Rembrandt, may we all humble ourselves before the cross, realizing that His blood is on us.   As we acknowledge our culpability, His blood on us no longer condemns us; rather it justifies us before God (Romans 5:9).   What an awesome God we serve!

Rembrandt's "Raising of the Cross"

Matthew 23:27-33: Are We Whitewashed Tombs or Walking the Walk?

“you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”  Jesus to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:33

"One of my biggest concerns was how people use…their religion as a banner…They go, 'I'm a good Christian…and this is the way you should live your life.' And I'm like, do not give me a lecture on how to live my life when you go to church every week, but I know you're still sleeping around on your wife.”  (Sandra Bullock explaining why she initially rejected the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy, a born-again Christian, for the movie, The Blind Side;  www.crosswalk.com, Nov. 16, 2009)

“Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature…For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

It is days before the crucifixion of Christ and Jesus is proclaiming the sixth woe to the scribes and Pharisees, (v. 29).  These hypocrites have polluted the Law of Moses and are trying to destroy Jesus. It is also days before the Jewish feast of Passover (see Matthew 26:2).   It had become a regular practice to have the tombs whitewashed and thus outwardly appear beautiful.  But still within they were full of dead people’s bones.  The hope is no one would accidentally touch the tombs and become guilty of uncleanness (v. 27) and thus be unable to participate in the Passover (see Numbers 19:16). 

And Jesus, being the Master Teacher, takes this scene, which was very familiar to His Jewish audience, and uses it to illustrate a spiritual reality.  He says that like the whitewashed tombs, the scribes and Pharisees outwardly appear righteous to others but within are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (v. 28).   Imagine hearing that if you were a Pharisee!

Jesus continues with the seventh woe of chapter 23:  “For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding the blood of the prophets’” (v. 29-30).  However, contrary to the opinion of the Pharisees, the gospels record several occasions when the scribes and Pharisees sought to destroy and kill Jesus (Matthew 12:14, Mark 11:18, Luke 4:29, John 8:59).  And very soon they will be successful in crucifying Him.    Therefore Jesus says, with a taste of the prophetic, “Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” (v. 31). 

Thus the hypocrites among the scribes and Pharisees will fill up then the measure of the wrath of God poured out on their fathers (v. 32) because of their disbelief, idolatry and bloodshed (see 2 Chronicles 36:15-19; Ezekiel 9:3-11).   This prophetic command to fill up then the measure of your fathers was fully realized in Jerusalem in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the city and killed over 1 million of its occupants (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, VI.9.3). 

Jesus then calls the hypocrites of the scribes and Pharisees serpents (Genesis 3:1) and a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7).  A common way for farmers of that day to rid themselves of these poisonous snakes was to start a grass fire.  The vipers, trying to escape, would be consumed by the fire. Jesus, using that imagery, asks rhetorically, “How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (v. 33).  And, according to the New Testament Jesus, hell is a very real place. 

The danger in a passage like this is that we may put ourselves above the scribes and Pharisees; we want to think we would believe in Jesus from the first miracle if we lived then.  Not necessarily true.  We are of the same nature as they.   The sins of the Pharisees and scribes are our sins; their woes, our woes.  How often do we put on our “Sunday best” to go to church yet have unconfessed sin in our heart?   The warning of being a whitewashed tomb still applies to us today. Only through God’s grace through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross do we escape being sentenced to hell (v.33).  

The movie The Blind Side is based on a true story of a Christian family adopting a homeless boy who goes on to play football in the NFL.  After rejecting the role, Sandra Bullock hesitatingly decided to meet the real life Leigh Anne Tuohy in person, the main role in the movie. Sandra saw that Leigh Anne’s faith was genuine.  Sandra changed her mind, took the role and said, “I finally met people who walked the walk.”  Are we whitewashed tombs or are we walking the walk?

Matthew 23:23-26: Neglecting Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness

“You clean the outside of the cup…but inside (you) are full of greed ...” Jesus to the Pharisees, Matthew 23:25

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:8, ESV)

“Nobody is ‘cool’ before the cross. …The gospel crucifies our swagger and kills our pride. The gospel is not about us becoming more ‘hip’ but more loving as we walk in humble service to our King.

(Michael Pohlman, “Blessed are the Uncool”, http://michaelpohlman.wordpress.com, Oct 27, 2011)

Jesus continues to expose the Pharisees and the scribes after they repeatedly tried to discredit Him (Matthew chapters 21 and 22).  In 23:23 Jesus continues His series of “woes”:  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law.  The scribes and Pharisees were obedient to Deuteronomy 14:22, “You shall surely tithe all the produce… which comes out of the field every year.” 

The scribes and the Pharisees had taken this command the extra mile and had tithed not only their crops but even the spices that could have been grown in small containers in the kitchen window.    In so doing, they neglected the weightier, or the more important, provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. 

In the previous chapter Jesus was asked, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?”  Jesus answered quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’” (22:37).   Jesus continued, “The second (greatest commandment) is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ (22:39).  Tithing spices, a priority of the Pharisees, was much further down on the list of great commandments.

Whether they were robbing widows of their estates (23:14) or tying up heavy burdens on men’s shoulder yet refusing to help them with so much as a finger (23:4), the scribes and Pharisees failed to show justice, mercy and faithfulness (v. 23).  Tithing spices are among the things they should have done (v. 23).  But because their hearts are full of self-indulgence, they failed to love God and love their neighbor.  These hypocrites used the Law exclusively to love themselves.

Jesus continues: “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (v. 24).    In the desert of Jerusalem all sorts of nasties find their way into one’s drink.   And not swallowing a gnat is technically obedience to the Law (Leviticus 11:41-42).    A gnat is the smallest of unclean animals; the largest is the camel (Leviticus 11:4).   By concentrating on the gnats of the Law, but ignoring the camels of justice, mercy and faithfulness, they missed the point of God’s Law.   

Jesus reminds us of the point of the Law with this illustration:  you clean the outside of the cup but inside you are full of robbery and self-indulgence (v.25).     The gospel is not about putting on our Sunday best, brushing ourselves off and making ourselves more presentable to God.   Jesus taught that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (see Matthew 5:17).   

The Law is our tutor pointing us “to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24) “apart from the works of the Law” (Romans 3:28).  The point of the Law is to reveal our own inability to live up to God’s impossibly holy and high standard.  The Law reveals our need for a Savior.   The Law cannot make us self-righteous. 

May we clean the inside of the cup and of the dish (v. 26).  How?  Through “His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5).   The inner reality of being cleansed through hope in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins comes first so that the outside of our cup may become clean also (v. 26).   Let’s kill our religious swagger and pride and let’s find life in His death on the cross.